VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - The attorney general’s office says a Gulfport man is accused of checking into hotel casinos in Mississippi and Louisiana under aliases and using the casinos’ free Wi-Fi to download child pornography.
Attorney General Jim Hood said Friday in a news release that 65-year-old Russell Haley was arrested Thursday at the Diamond Jacks Casino in Vicksburg.
Hood said Haley is charged with two counts of possessing child pornography.
It was not immediately clear if Haley had an attorney who could comment.
Hood said Haley has been visiting casinos in the two states over the past several months, using aliases to mask his identity.
Hood said the Attorney General’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force helped the two states track Haley’s movements.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said investigators in both states discovered Haley had been visiting casinos over the past several months using aliases to rent rooms.
“It’s been a fairly complicated investigation because we were dealing with multiple jurisdictions and multiple identifies,” Pace said.
The Louisiana and Mississippi gambling regulators obtained guest registries for the dates Haley is accused of downloading images at several hotels. A comparison of the lists reveled Haley was consistently present as a guest on those dates, Hood said.
The hotel stays occurred during the seven-month period, Hood said.
Hood said when investigators found someone was using the free Wi-Fi at the Diamond Jacks Casino to download more images and verified Haley was a guest, authorities got a search warrant and made the arrest.
Hood said investigators found images of child pornography on Haley’s laptop computer, thumb drives and optical discs.
“The work with our office … partnering with other state agencies should assure all child predators that we will catch them and put them behind bars no matter where they go,” Hood said in a statement.
Haley was booked into the Warren County Jail awaiting an initial appearance in Warren County Justice Court.
If convicted, Haley faces up to 80 years in prison.
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